Jewell Parker Rhodes

Jewell Parker Rhodes is the award-winning author of several books for youth including Black Brother, Black Brother, named Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best 2020, and the New York Times bestseller Ghost Boys which has garnered over 30 awards and honors including the Jane Addams Peace Award and the Golden Kite Award for Middle Grade Fiction.  Jewell is also the author of Towers Falling, winner of the 2017 Notable Books for a Global Society, and the celebrated Louisiana Girls’ Trilogy: Ninth Ward, winner of a Coretta Scott King Honor Award; Sugar; and Bayou Magic. Jewell currently serves as the Piper Endowed Chair and founding artistic director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. She enjoys teaching, walking her Toy Aussie Sheepdogs, theater, dancing, and music. Born in Pittsburgh, she now lives in Seattle.